


edges of memory

by underoriginal



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Redemption
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-15
Updated: 2015-12-15
Packaged: 2018-05-06 22:00:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5432318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/underoriginal/pseuds/underoriginal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jasper comes to Garnet with some concerns. Garnet does her best to ease them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	edges of memory

“I’m not gonna fuse with anyone.”

Garnet looked up from her magazine to see Jasper standing over her, shifting her weight nervously from foot to foot. “I didn’t expect you to,” she said.

Jasper nodded. “I know,” she blurted out, her fingers running absently through her hair. “I just… I just had to make sure you knew.”

Garnet pursed her lips and put down her magazine. “Come with me.”

She led Jasper to the warp pad, the massive gem trailing behind her one of those stray kittens Steven always brought home. He had a small army of cats, not even counting Lion. 

“Where are we going?” Jasper asked.

Garnet didn’t reply until she had activated the warp pad and they arrived at her favorite location in the world; a boiling volcano in the middle of the frozen north of the planet. 

“I thought you would be more comfortable out of the house,” she said.

Garnet understood Jasper’s nervousness completely. She wasn’t exactly a prisoner but neither was she allowed to go free. For a gem as accustomed to discipline as Jasper, the inbetween space was undoubtedly torturous. 

Jasper inclined her head silently and sat on the edge of the volcano, biting her bottom lip. Garnet dove into the lava, allowing herself to be enfolded in the warmth before she resurfaced, flicking embers out of her hair. The volcano would likely erupt soon and the lava was high enough that Garnet was about level with Jasper’s toes. She waited, treading lava, until Jasper felt ready to speak.

“I mean, I understand why you Crystal Gems want to fuse but… I can’t,” Jasper admitted, before continuing on in a rush. “The others, they rely on fusion so much, and you obviously do and I mean we need to be as strong as possible to defeat the Cluster but I’m not gonna fuse yeah we need to be strong but there has to be another way to fix it.” She looked at Garnet pleadingly. “Right?”

Garnet considered her next words very carefully. “Fusion is a very powerful tool,” she agreed, “but I don’t think it was ever meant to just be used as a tool.”

Jasper buried her face in her hands. “But we need every tool we can get,” she sighed.

Garnet floated closer to Jasper. “We have plenty of fusions we can use,” she said. “I promise you, you won’t have to fuse ever again.”

Jasper glared at Garnet between her fingers. “I thought you loved fusion,” she accused.

“I do,” Garnet said. “It’s kind of hard not to. But I have given up far too much to live freely to deny anyone else that same freedom. The decision not to fuse should be kept as sacred as the decision to fuse.”

Jasper stayed silent for a few long moments, her head buried in her hands. Finally, her shoulders started shaking. “I can still feel her,” she whispered. “Why can’t I stop feeling her?”

Garnet pulled herself out of the lava, sitting a respectable distance next to Jasper. Truth be told, this was the only place where she couldn’t help Jasper. The only quick solution she knew to fusion echoes was to fuse with someone else instead. Clearly, that wasn’t an option.

“It just takes time,” she admitted softly.

Jasper groaned and started digging her fingers into her scalp. Garnet took her hands and gently pulled them away. 

“That’s not going to help,” she whispered.

Jasper turned towards her, amber eyes filled with tears. “Make her go away,” she pleaded.

Garnet took a deep breath. “There is one thing I can try, but it might not work.”

“Make her go away,” Jasper repeated, clinging desperately to Garnet’s shoulders, head buried in Garnet’s chest. “Make her go away.”

As carefully as she possibly could, Garnet pulled Jasper down, settling her head in her lap. She set aside her shades, closed her two main eyes, stared down at Jasper with her third eye. Focusing all her attention, she could make out the wisps of blue around Jasper’s wrists and ankles.

The blue was brighter than she expected, surging vividly from within Jasper. Garnet lowered her head over Jasper’s, entering into a trance. Her vision blurred until it was consumed by color, her own bright pink, Jasper’s dusky gold, Lapis’s ghostly blue, and the pulsing black-brown of the planet laced with sparkling scars and matte humans. She guided the dusky gold over the blue, washing away the water like cleaning out a wound.

She could not wash the wound clean, that would take time and still the scars would remain, but she could lend some relief. 

Still, she took her time. You could tell a lot about a gem by their aura and Jasper’s was more radiant than Garnet had seen in a long time. Garnet herself had the advantage of being a fusion; she was already made of love. But Jasper, was powerful, even more powerful than Garnet had expected. Strong enough to endure Lapis Lazuli, strong enough to accept the error of her ways, strong enough to even dare open her mind to a fusion after what she had been through. Even if Jasper thought herself weak, Garnet admired her strength.

And she could admit to herself that Jasper was pretty easy on the eyes.

No matter how deeply Garnet fell into the trance, she never lost track of her sense of time and after a few hours, she withdrew, showing Jasper how to dam the walls of her self.

While Jasper blinked in the absence, Garnet summoned her shades again. Jasper sat up, her mouth slack, running a hand over Garnet’s arm.

“You?” she murmured. “You? Thank you.”

Garnet nodded, her head ringing, gold singing at the edges of her vision.

Jasper’s hand trailed up to rest at the crook of Garnet’s neck and her face was mere inches from Garnet’s own. 

“May I?” Jasper asked

Garnet closed the distance, pressing her lips against Jasper’s, tasting the gold, her own hand coming up to tangle in Jasper’s thick mane. “We’ll have to do that again sometime,” she whispered into Jasper’s lips.

Jasper hummed her agreement and deepened the kiss.

Garnet never lost track of the time, but she never cared to share how long they stayed there, tangled together, discovering each other.


End file.
